Week in Review: layoffs, budget shortfall, and crosswalks

Bill Radke discusses the week’s news with Geekwire’s Mike Lewis, Publicola’s Erica Barnett, and Insider’s Katherine Long.

It was reported this week that Amazon will lay off roughly 10,000 employees in the very near future. Job cuts were also announced at Twitter, Meta and other tech companies. Why now? Seattle’s Revenue and Forecast Council’s November report shows the city facing an $82.3 million shortfall in its 2023-2024 budget. Add that to the original $141 million deficit in the general fund. Why does Seattle have such a big budget deficit?

On Monday, thousands of students in Seattle walked out of class and went to City Hall demanding more resources and tougher restrictions on guns following a shooting at Ingraham High that killed one student. Among other things, students are demanding one mental health counselor for every 200 students, as opposed to the one for every 350 students that exists now. What will the city do?

On Wednesday, a crosswalk painted by Capitol Hill residents on Monday was removed by a crew with the Seattle Department of Transportation. This is the second crosswalk in recent years that was painted by residents and removed by the DOT. The DOT says that an “unauthorized” crosswalk gives residents a “false sense of safety.” Why are people painting their own crosswalks?

The Seattle Landmark Preservation Board voted against landmarking a building on Capitol Hill known as the Jai Thai building, allowing an affordable housing plan to carry on. This bucks a trend of the board typically favoring the preservation of buildings in favor of new ones. What’s the difference between an old building and a historic one?

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that he will nominate Senator Patty Murray to be Senate pro tempore, which would make her third in line for United States president. She would be the first person to serve in this role. A majority of Seattle voters are favoring the change to ranked choice voting.

As of Thursday, 51 percent of voters favored the measure. On election night, more than half of Seattle voters said they did not want to make a change. The ranked choice system applies to August primary races for the mayor's office, city council and Seattle city attorney.